Little kids don’t go as long between meals as adults. My daughter usually snacks between breakfast and lunch, and again between lunch and dinner. Smaller stomachs mean more frequent meals. We always pack snacks for her when we travel.
One woman flying American Airlines did a great job. She packed a great-looking snack box. A well-fed kid will be a happier kid, and that’s great for everyone in the cabin! But her three year old nephew didn’t get a chance to eat the snacks, because a crewmember on the St. Louis to Dallas… took them away?
Flew @AmericanAir today w/a 3 yr old & his snack box of unwrapped food. flight attendant walked by, snatched it without asking, & took it to show a friend seated near the front of the plane. Was gone several minutes. I had to throw it all out. Im incensed! Contacting corporate. pic.twitter.com/pAdiQ5Olcc
— darabraddock (@dynamicallydara) August 12, 2023
Dara Braddock relays that she and the three year old were playing a game together on his iPad, and the snack box was out on a seat back tray. A flight attendant, who had commented on the box earlier, saw it out and “grabbed [the] snack box with all his food in it & INFORMS me that her friend traveling in the front of the plane is a new grandmother,& she was ‘going to show her this’.”
The flight attendant “snatched the snack box & walked off” before the passenger could object. She held her tongue. The box was returned to her, but it was open and she was reluctant to give it back to the child. She didn’t know what had happened to it in the meantime or what had been touched.
On the way off of the aircraft she asked the flight attendant to speak to her on the jet bridge, and let her know that what had happened wasn’t ok. The flight attendant apologized, but suggested it was not a big deal – a new grandmother got a kick out of it, and besides she’d washed her hands not too long earlier.
She “apologized” but continued to explain why her behavior was okay.
Her hands were clean.
It was her friend.
Her friend is a new grandmother.Her rationalizations negate any apology, as she was clearly not sorry and felt she had every right to help herself to our belongings
— darabraddock (@dynamicallydara) August 15, 2023
Ms. Braddock complained to American Airlines on twitter. They didn’t even follow the usual script of asking the customer to take this to direct message, and follow up for details about which crewmember had done this. So I interpret their response as ‘sorry, not sorry’.
What an adorable snack box! Our apology the crew member took it from you without asking first.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) August 12, 2023
The passenger here explained that she felt violated having her things taken from her, especially because it was something for her three year old nephew. And it was made worse because she had to hold her tongue. Up in the air, you don’t challenge the crew. Bad things happen to passengers when they do. She felt even more vulnerable because of her race, describing the unequal power and microaggression that she felt having he property taken.
Weird move by the FA but “Throwing it all out” afterwards? Weird. Two weirdos interacting with each other never ends well.
There’s no way to know whether or not race played a role in mistreatment. It’s sad that people have been persuaded to presume that it did. That presumption, even when accurate, is not helpful to anyone. In modern parlance, the presumption of racist intent is disempowering. Inferring charitable intent and forgiving it is much less depressing and arguably empowering.
Demanding fairness carries a price in personal stress. Just my opinion as a person who walked that road decades ago. Feel free to demand all the fairness you want.
There’s two sides to every story and if we take her crazy rant as actuality happening, she had more than enough time to say something before the FA got even 1 row away.
Let’s also factor in STL to DFW is about a 1h 22m flight.
Ask me, she’s just someone that’s looking to get her tickets refunded
Sounds about right for AA customer service. They treat their passengers like the passengers are doing the airline a disservice.
The Flight Attendant viewed the snacks as reparations
Only kidding…..kinda
The thing to do is ask first.
Thank gawd I don’t have the crap created by “Twatter”, “FaceCrook”, “InstaCrap” or any of those narcissistic social medias. I don’t need to know EVERYTHING about your life nor do I tell you EVERYTHING about my life. That way I can read and make up my own mind. I didn’t look at the video (if there’s one) but just reading the article, how does “nsx at FlyerTalk” put a race card in the mix? If one reads the article as written, there is no mention of race. Me suspects (sic) that it’s to stir up trouble. Pathetic. Regardless, the flight attendant taking a passenger’s belongings without permission is reprehensible. “May I show this to one of our passengers?” would be appropriate.
Throwing it out was weird. If she was in first class would she not have eaten a first class meal since the flight attendants would have been alone with it in the galley? What’s the difference?
@Mets Fan in NC – What kind of reparations are you speaking about?
I smell more sides to the story, racism and fakeness created by “Twatter”, “FaceCrook”, “InstaCrap”
Looks like a feast for a coast to coast 8 year old.
Fake news…
The flight attendant was just pissed about boarding pay and decided to take it out on the 3 year old…..and then requested that the 3 year old be added to AA’s no-fly list.
@Chris That is sooo funny! I needed to laugh. Thank you
I appreciate the hard work that FA’s do and try to treat them with courtesy and respect. However, this FA seems to be in a category of her own. Perhaps AA needs to put HER on the no-fly list.
Wow, so many ugly comments! The FA was wrong to take it without permission. Speaking as a mother, since the food was not wrapped and the box was opened (why open a clear box if you are just looking) she had no way of knowing whose possibly dirty fingers had been in it. Better to toss it than risk her kid getting sick because someone didn’t wash after using the lav before sampling the Cheerios.
Let’s say things happened the opposite way and the passenger grabbed something from the FA’s cart.
Would that be okay? No, she would probably be asked to deplane and might have greater consequences than that.
She shouldn’t have to say anything to her before she passed any rows. Just don’t touch people’s things.
Whether something happened to the food or not is irrelevant. Don’t touch other people’s things without their permission. Simple.
Another crazy story from AA. I’m glad I don’t fly them.
Very unusual FA behavior, and a lame AA response. Bravo to Ms Braddock for the way she handled the situation.
The woman’s neurotic. Beyond belief that she would worry about giving the snack to the kid after a FA looked at it. The FA’s dumb but the woman’s a sicko.
Looks like the FA found a Karen in the wild. Sure the FA should have asked but talk about an overreaction Lady needs to take a chill pill, a 3 year old is putting way ickier stuff in their mouth when traveling…
@jsn55. I don’t know about that. The flight attendant showed it to another passenger. I would accept it either. And she said it was opened when she got it back.
@jsn55. I don’t know about that. The flight attendant showed it to another passenger. I WOULDN’T have accepted it either. And she said it was opened when she got it back.
Hmm… flight attendants touch your food, drinks, snacks etc. The FA was wrong to take the food, but if you’re worried about germs then an airplane is not a good place for you. Literally every surface is more contaminated than whatever might be on the FA or her friend’s hand.
Leff – ‘microagression’? Ok, woke boy.
Dan – you’re a moron.
**818Pilotguy** – typical pilot trash.
Sean – you’re a moron.
**TLU**- you’re clearly airline trash.
**jsn55** – ditto.
**MoreSun**- you’re defending theft. You’re a moron.
The flight attendant should be charged with theft. Plain and simple.
Tell me again how the air whores are safety professionals? I’ll wait.
Granny may have washed her hands but how does mom know she didnt cough all over the food? I don’t blame her for throwing it out and complaining. How would you feel if some random non-professional stranger handled YOUR food before you ate it? It wasnt just the flight attendant… she let a random passenger handle the food! 3 year olds are susceptible to things adults dont get sick from.
Not to mention grabbing someone’s stuff without asking is a violation and extremely rude. Wonder why the FA thought it was ok? Does she often overstep or was this actually a race thing? Either way she should be reprimanded.
And please stop labelling things as “microaggressions”. It is not helping the case against racism. First, it minimizes it by calling it “micro”. Second, too often ppl think they can read minds and are labelling things as racist microaggressions when they cannot know what was really in the other person’s mind. Choose your battles… screaming microaggression when its not only causes ppl to roll thier eyes every time they hear that word and not take it seriously.
We cannot know if this was a race thing. The FA could just be THAT rude and dense with everyone. Punish her for the “crime”, not for presumed thoughts and motive, even if we are curious and suspicious about them.
This is what happens when two weird and self-centered people meet in the wild.
I think Fred and Alicia make a perfect couple
I think Patti is clearly an incompetent airline bootlicker.
Simple Minded Adult Humans…The box didn’t belong to her! Had this been in the reverse, I’m almost certain the FA would have pulled the Fire Alarm. Rule of thumb, don’t take what’s not yours, it’s call stealing…The result was a Child was ignored, and his property was taken, and he didn’t get to eat what was intended for HIM
This never happened
NEXT TIME, TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOUR CELL PHONE!!
^^^^ another airline troll.
If only AA had the social media line of Ryanair: ‘What an adorable snack box! (takes it w/o permission to show it to the rest of the team’. LOL